It is telling that during a week in which the Winter Olympics began, the most viewed images were those of dodgy hotel plumbing made by journos on their smartphones. While we enjoy the lighthearted moments Sochi has already provided, we must also recognize the ongoing, serious human right issues. Human Rights Watch’s well-timed release of this disturbing video of horrific attacks on LBGQT people at the hands of hate groups buoyed by Russian anti-gay laws, keeps the important topic at the forefront of Olympic conversations.

We found as much color elsewhere in the photoworld, like the Sochi opening ceremony (which was bizarrely quite rainbow?). We go back to the stratosphere with that guy who jumped out of his space balloon, mourn the passing of two greats, look ahead to the awards season, look back to the Civil Rights Act and marvel at the dotty world of veiled Moroccan motorbike women.

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New HD Footage of Felix Baumgartner’s 128,000-Foot Stratos Jump

Many of us watched Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting free fall live or saw the POV footage Red Bull released afterwards. But neither of those viewing experiences were quite as pretty as the new segment of HD footage recently released by GoPro.

The segment features footage from seven HD HERO2 cameras and shows Baumgartner as he sets a new height mark and becomes the first person to exceed the sound speed of sound in free fall by traveling as fast as Mach 1.25. That’s 844 mph!

The video also captures the terrifying spin Baumgartner goes into and then must recover from midway into the fall. Like everything associated with Red Bull Stratos event, the eight-minute video is overly produced, but we’re fine with that because it’s so damn thrilling to watch.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Remembered in Tintype

A recent tintype portrait of Philip Seymour Hoffman made by Victoria Will has been the web’s preferred choice of portrait by which to remember the great actor by. When describing the photo, journalists have described PSH’s somber look as haunting or chilling, and have even suggested there’s an element of premonition of tragedy to come.

When we see the photo, we see something completely different. Hoffman was an ace at embodying his movie characters — which were often dark and tormented — and that skill shines through in the photo. For us he’s not showing the viewers anything about his personal life. He’s just conjuring up that same, incredible ability to act in front of the camera.

We, like the rest of his fans, are saddened by Hoffman’s death because he died tragically and way too soon. But we’re also sad to see him go so young because we suspect there were many more complicated, but thrilling characters yet to come.

Photo: Victoria Will/Invision/AP

Prominent African Photographer JD ‘Okhai Ojeikere Passes Away

JD ‘Okhai Ojeikere, who was most well-known for his black and white photos of African hairstyles, died this past Sunday at the age of 83. Ojeikere was born in Nigeria and had been working on the hair series since the 1960s. All together he took somewhere around 1,000 portraits over a multi-decades long career. Although it took time, Ojeikere eventually gained international recognition and has his work was exhibited at locations around the world, including the Venice Biennale.

Photo: JD ‘Okhai Ojeikere

The Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

We’re torn when it comes to watching Olympic Opening Ceremonies. For the most part, they’re tacky and overdone. Sometimes, however, the organizers manage to squeeze in a couple jaw-dropping stunts that are both beautiful and amazing. The same seems to be true for Sochi. Plenty of overdone pageantry, sprinkled with a few bursts of genuine creativity.

And just because it needs to be said, we’d like to add our voice to the growing, and ongoing concerns, about just how ugly the American uniforms are, this year especially. We might take home a bundle of medals over the coming weeks, but we also deserve the award for ugliest sweaters on the planet.

Photo: Roman Vondrous (CTK via AP Images)

Sony World Photo Awards 2014 Shortlisted Images are Beyond Stunning

The Sony World Photo Awards are broken down into three overarching categories: Professional, Open, and Youth, which further encompass virtually every kind of sub category you can imagine. According to the WPO website, the shortlists were selected from 139,544 images from 166 countries. You’ll find everything from architecture to lifestyle, portraiture to sports. The winner of the Photographer of the Year title won’t be announced until April, but for now, you can enjoy the best the world of photography has to offer – and decide for yourself who the winners should be.

Photo: Adam Pretty, ‘Double Dive’. Jose Guerra Oliva and Jeinkler Aguirre Manso of Cuba compete in the Men’s 10m Platform Synchronized Diving final on day two of the 15th FINA World Championships at Piscina Municipal de Montjuic on July 21, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

Portraits of Pop Patterned All-Female Moroccan Bike Gang

We were blown away by British-Moroccan photographer Hassan Hajjaj’s portraits of Marrakech’s female bike gangs. The photographs which show polka-dot-veiled riders, heart-shaped sunglasses and Nike sponsored traditional garb are so outrageous we wondered if these were a commercial stunt. But apparently these are real motorcyclists in the Moroccan capital!

Danny Lyon’s Photos of Student’s Civil Rights Action Go On Show

2014 is the 50th anniversary of the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Serving as the first staff photographer — between 1962 and 1964 — for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), photographer Danny Lyon made images of student protests and mobilization against racism in Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery, Alabama; Albany, Georgia; and Danville, Virginia.

The Etherton Gallery’s exhibition ‘Danny Lyon: Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement’ opens today showing 50 silver gelatin prints of lunch counter sit-ins, student beatings, tear gassings, the jailing of Martin Luther King Jr., and the unscheduled visit of a young Bob Dylan to SNCC headquarters in Greenwood, Mississippi. Traveling the same roads as three murdered civil rights workers, Lyon, was harassed, beaten and jailed.